Jesse Plemons

  • I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, September 2021) I have seldom felt as strong an impulse to bail on a film as I did through the fifth-to-fifteenth minutes of I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Here I was, stuck in the exasperating mind of a young woman who is herself stuck in a car with her current but soon-to-be ex-boyfriend. “I’m thinking of ending things,” she endlessly ruminates and repeats, berating herself for coming along as she contemplates — nay, looks forward—to ending their six-week relationship that feels shorter than the film already. The monologue goes on and on in what feels like a straight adaptation of a stream-of-consciousness prose narrative straight to the screen. Fortunately, the film has other creepy weirdnesses in store once past that rebarbative opening — This being a film from iconoclastic writer-director auteur Charlie Kaufman, the surrealism and off-putting material keeps piling up until viewers realize that I’m Thinking of Ending Things is not interested in narrative as much as formal experimentation. Narrators change, perspectives shift, genres blur into each other, strange stuff happens and we just keep going to the next thing. There’s an explanation of sorts, but no one will be blamed if they just don’t want to play Kaufman’s games. There are a few interesting moments and plenty of pop-culture quotes (including swatches of repurposed dialogue) and I’m rather happy with Jesse Plemons’ persona-busting performance. I also liked Jessie Buckley even if her character is exasperating—but that goes for much of the film as a whole. It’s not particularly deep experimental cinema, but it’s not interested by conventional storytelling either, so you’re either along for the ride or you check out—and I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a ride that starts out slow enough to send less-patient viewers heading for the exits.

  • Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2021) There’s been, in keeping with the times, quite a subgenre of 1960s-activism movies latterly — many of them Oscar-nominated. A recurrent theme of this latest crop has been a hard look at the efforts of the United States government in sabotaging civil rights activism. Judas and the Black Messiah is even more caustic in depicting systemic racism within American law enforcement, escalating to murder in a way that will feel eerily familiar to twenty-first century viewers. One of the film’s strengths, as it presents the twin stories of Black Panther activist Fred Hampton and small-time crook turned FBI informer William O’Neal, is to present a convincing picture of what it was like to be involved with the Black Panthers at the time, in-between aggressive rhetoric and the toll taken by opposing the system. The real-life story dramatized here has a quasi-operatic tragic grandeur of betrayal and guilt — the real-life death of O’Neil providing a sobering coda to the film. While the script and direction of the film are both really good (some great work by Shaka King on both counts), the film’s biggest assets remain the acting talent assembled for the occasion. Daniel Kaluuya is incandescent as Hampton — playing a revolutionary with a flair for rhetoric takes panache, and you can see how Kaluuya ended up with an Oscar. Still, there’s also quite a lot in the ensemble cast: Lakeith Stanfield has a more subtle but not less difficult role as the reluctant informant; Jesse Plemons is his usual unbearable self as an FBI agent; Dominique Fishback is compelling whenever she’s on-screen; and there’s some irony in having Martin Sheen play J. Edgar Hoover. Comparisons with other recent films, such as The Trial of the Chicago 7, The United States vs. Billie Holliday and BlacKKKlansman, are inevitable, not unwarranted but not necessarily to Judas and the Black Messiah’s detriment — it has style, theme and narrative difference enough to distinguish itself, and some striking acting to appreciate on its own.

  • El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

    El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) Like many people, I binge-watched “Breaking Bad” as soon as the entire series made its way to Netflix in 2016ish. Picking up the pieces of the series’ plot in time for El Camino wasn’t as difficult as I would have guessed: while the film dutifully continues the events of the last episode as if no time at all had passed, it also revisits many of the series’ characters in such a way that you can easily remember who was who and what they did. The cameos are usually in increasing order of significance, so just wait and you’ll see your favourites at some point. Acting as more of a bonus coda than anything specifically new, El Camino focuses on Jesse as he escapes from the neo-Nazi compound, then spends the next few days putting his affairs in order and getting enough money to start a new life. Taking its cues from TV show structure, El Camino often feels like a series of short loop episodes, with Jessie dealing with a specific challenge before moving on to the next stage. Robert Forster makes an impression (in one of his last film roles) as an inflexible “cleaner,” and the film does get a pretty good sequence, as Jessie looks for hidden money in the lair of a dead nemesis. (Jesse Plemons is back in his irritatingly evil character, proving the banality of evil in many different ways.) El Camino is probably not work a look if you’re not already a viewer of the show: the story is decent, the production values are nice, but the film doesn’t really intend to stand alone nor offer meaning to anyone but those wanting another hit of “Breaking Bad.” Nothing wrong with that – just setting expectations straight.

  • Game Night (2018)

    Game Night (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2019) With the simultaneous resurgence in R-rated comedies and immersive gaming for adults, it’s not such a surprise that something like Game Night would emerge—a comedy aimed at adults, taking on the mind games of a what’s-real-and-what’s-not kind of entertainment. The plot has to do with a regularly scheduled “game night” between friends spinning out of control as mystery men burst in the house and take away a player. As the group enjoys figuring out the clues to find the kidnappers, there are plenty of warnings that the line between entertainment and real danger is thinner than they expect. What could easily have been a thriller is here presented as a dark comedy, with characters blithely walking in danger when they are expecting the safety net of an arranged scenario. The distinction is further blurred by showy cinematography far closer to off-beat thriller than flat comedy—it supports the gaming thematic by playing head games with the audience, bathing everything in shadows and even tilt-focusing the images so that we’re reminded of game board pieces. Jason Bateman typically anchors the cast by providing level-headed snark even as the other actors are left to go wild. Rachel McAdams is a good foil as his wife, while Jesse Plemons is perhaps a bit too good as a lonely neighbour trying to join the gaming group—his performance is a bit too unnerving for comfort. The result is surprisingly good, especially when compared to other R-rated films: while I would have toned down the violence, the result does manage to find the tricky balance inherent in any black comedy, and the result is highly entertaining to watch. It even finds that meta-balance between the safety net of a comedy/game and the tension of a thriller/crime. Making good use of trendy elements, Game Night is a bit of a surprise and a welcome one at that.